Controlling power delivery to a processor via a bypass

ABSTRACT

In one embodiment, a processor includes a plurality of domains each to operate at an independently controllable voltage and frequency, a plurality of linear regulators each to receive a first voltage from an off-chip source and controllable to provide a regulated voltage to at least one of the plurality of domains, and a plurality of selectors each coupled to one of the domains, where each selector is configured to provide a regulated voltage from one of the linear regulators or a bypass voltage to a corresponding domain. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

This application is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No.16/056,964, filed Aug. 7, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/804,020, filed Nov. 6, 2017, now U.S. Pat. No.10,146,283, issued Dec. 4, 2018, which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 13/906,652, filed May 31, 2013, now U.S. Pat. No.9,823,719, issued Nov. 21, 2017, the content of which is herebyincorporated by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments relate to power management of a system, and moreparticularly to operating voltage control in a processor.

BACKGROUND

Advances in semiconductor processing and logic design have permitted anincrease in the amount of logic that may be present on integratedcircuit devices. As a result, computer system configurations haveevolved from a single or multiple integrated circuits in a system tomultiple hardware threads, multiple cores, multiple devices, and/orcomplete systems on individual integrated circuits. Additionally, as thedensity of integrated circuits has grown, the power requirements forcomputing systems (from embedded systems to servers) have alsoescalated. Furthermore, software inefficiencies, and its requirements ofhardware, have also caused an increase in computing device energyconsumption. In fact, some studies indicate that computing devicesconsume a sizeable percentage of the entire electricity supply for acountry, such as the United States of America. As a result, there is avital need for energy efficiency and conservation associated withintegrated circuits. These needs will increase as servers, desktopcomputers, notebooks, Ultrabooks™, tablets, mobile phones, processors,embedded systems, etc. become even more prevalent (from inclusion in thetypical computer, automobiles, and televisions to biotechnology).

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a portion of a system in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

FIG. 3 is a block diagram of an on-die voltage regulator in accordancewith an embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 4 is a flow diagram of a method for controlling operating voltagesof a processor in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention.

FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a processor in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a processor in accordance with anotherembodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 7 is a block diagram of a multi-domain processor in accordance withanother embodiment of the present invention.

FIG. 8 is a block diagram of a system in accordance with an embodimentof the present invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

In various embodiments, a processor is configured to receive one or morevoltages from an external or off-chip source. In turn, these voltagescan be provided directly to one or more domains of the processor, orthese voltages may instead further be conditioned on-die prior todelivery to such domains. Although the scope of the present invention isnot limited in this regard, in an embodiment a processor is coupled toreceive one or more incoming voltages from one or more external voltageregulators via corresponding external voltage rails. In turn, theexternal voltage rails may be coupled to internal voltage rails that canbe configured to couple to on-chip voltage regulators such as on-dielinear regulators or, via bypass paths, be provided directly to acorresponding domain. By providing an external voltage directly to adomain without on-die conditioning by way of an on-die voltageregulator, power efficiency losses that otherwise would be consumed bythe on-die regulator can be avoided.

As will be described further herein, embodiments may also provide fordynamic control of voltage delivery to one or more domains to thusenable voltage delivery directly from an off-chip voltage when a givendomain is controlled to operate at or substantially close to thisoff-chip voltage. Instead when a domain is controlled to operate at adifferent voltage, a voltage provided from off-chip can be furtherconditioned on-die and thereafter provided to the domain.

Embodiments may be particularly suitable for a multicore processor inwhich each of multiple cores can operate at an independent voltage andfrequency point. As used herein the term “domain” is used to mean acollection of hardware and/or logic that operates at the same voltageand frequency point. In addition, a multicore processor can furtherinclude other non-core processing engines such as fixed function units,graphics engines, and so forth. Such processor can include independentdomains other than the cores, such as one or more domains associatedwith a graphics engine and one or more domains associated with non-corecircuitry. Although many implementations of a multi-domain processor canbe formed on a single semiconductor die, other implementations can berealized by a multi-chip package in which different domains can bepresent on different semiconductor die of a single package.

Referring now to FIG. 1, shown is a block diagram of a portion of asystem in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Asshown in FIG. 1, system 100 may include various components, including aprocessor 110 which as shown is a multicore processor. Processor 110 maybe coupled to a power supply 150 via an external voltage regulator 160,which may perform a first voltage conversion to provide a primaryregulated voltage to processor 110.

As seen, processor 110 may be a single die processor socket includingmultiple core units 120 a-120 n. In an embodiment, each core unit mayinclude multiple cores, a cache memory, an interface unit and so forth.In addition, each core may be associated with an individual low dropoutregulator (LDO) 125 a-125 n to allow for fine-grained control of voltageand thus power and performance of each individual core unit. Althoughshown as being LDOs, it is understood that in other embodiments theon-die regulators may be other types of linear regulators. In anembodiment, each LDO may be individually controlled in a first mode tobe engaged to further regulate a voltage provided to a domain such as acore, or in a second mode to be disabled and bypassed such that thereceived external voltage is provided via a bypass path to the domainwithout further regulation. As such, each core can operate at anindependent voltage and frequency, enabling great flexibility andaffording wide opportunities for balancing power consumption withperformance.

Still referring to FIG. 1, additional components may be present withinthe processor including an input/output interface 132, another interface134, and an integrated memory controller 136. As seen, each of thesecomponents may be powered by another LDO 125 x. In one embodiment,interface 132 may be in accordance with the Intel® Quick PathInterconnect (QPI) protocol, which provides for point-to-point (PtP)links in a cache coherent protocol that includes multiple layersincluding a physical layer, a link layer and a protocol layer. In turn,interface 134 may be in accordance with a Peripheral ComponentInterconnect Express (PCIe™) specification, e.g., the PCI Express™Specification Base Specification version 2.0 (published Jan. 17, 2007).

Also shown is a power control unit (PCU) 138, which may includehardware, software and/or firmware to perform power managementoperations with regard to processor 110. In various embodiments, PCU 138may include logic to determine operating voltage levels for each of thecores and other agents of the processor and to dynamically andindependently enable or disable corresponding LDOs based at least inpart on the determined operating voltage and the regulated voltageprovided by the external voltage regulator(s) in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. Furthermore, PCU 138 may be coupledvia a dedicated interface to external voltage regulator 160 to issuecontrol signals to the external voltage regulator. Also in someembodiments, PCU 138 may further couple to a platform power managementcontroller such as a separate power management integrated circuit(PMIC). PCU 138 may couple directly to such PMIC by an I²C bus and/or avoltage control (e.g., SVID) bus. While not shown for ease ofillustration, understand that additional components may be presentwithin processor 110 such as additional uncore logic and othercomponents such as internal memories, e.g., one or more levels of acache memory hierarchy and so forth.

Although the following embodiments are described with reference toenergy conservation and energy efficiency in specific integratedcircuits, such as in computing platforms or processors, otherembodiments are applicable to other types of integrated circuits andlogic devices. Similar techniques and teachings of embodiments describedherein may be applied to other types of circuits or semiconductordevices that may also benefit from better energy efficiency and energyconservation. For example, the disclosed embodiments are not limited toany particular type of computer systems, and may be also used in otherdevices, such as handheld devices, systems on chip (SoCs), and embeddedapplications. Some examples of handheld devices include cellular phones,Internet protocol devices, digital cameras, personal digital assistants(PDAs), and handheld PCs. Embedded applications typically include amicrocontroller, a digital signal processor (DSP), network computers(NetPC), set-top boxes, network hubs, wide area network (WAN) switches,or any other system that can perform the functions and operations taughtbelow. Moreover, the apparatus', methods, and systems described hereinare not limited to physical computing devices, but may also relate tosoftware optimizations for energy conservation and efficiency. As willbecome readily apparent in the description below, the embodiments ofmethods, apparatus', and systems described herein (whether in referenceto hardware, firmware, software, or a combination thereof) are vital toa ‘green technology’ future, such as for power conservation and energyefficiency in products that encompass a large portion of the US economy.

Note that the LDO control described herein may be independent of andcomplementary to an operating system (OS)-based mechanism, such as theAdvanced Configuration and Platform Interface (ACPI) standard (e.g.,Rev. 3.0b, published Oct. 10, 2006). According to ACPI, a processor canoperate at various performance states or levels, namely from P0 to PN.In general, the P1 performance state may correspond to the highestguaranteed performance state that can be requested by an OS. In additionto this P1 state, the OS can further request a higher performance state,namely a P0 state. This P0 state may thus be an opportunistic or turbomode state in which, when power and/or thermal budget is available,processor hardware can configure the processor or at least portionsthereof to operate at a higher than guaranteed frequency. In manyimplementations a processor can include multiple so-called binfrequencies above a guaranteed maximum frequency, also referred to as aP1 frequency, exceeding to a maximum peak frequency of the particularprocessor, as fused or otherwise written into the processor duringmanufacture. In addition, according to ACPI, a processor can operate atvarious power states or levels. With regard to power states, ACPIspecifies different activity or power consumption states, generallyreferred to as C-states, C0, C1 to Cn states. When a core is active, itruns at a C0 state, and when the core is idle it may be placed in a corelow power state, also called a core non-zero C-state (e.g., C1-C6states), with each C-state being at a lower power consumption level(such that C6 is a deeper low power state than C1, and so forth). Forthe various P-states and C-states, it may be possible to operate coresand other processor agents at varying operating voltages to meet therequested performance level at a minimal power consumption level.

Referring now to FIG. 2, shown is a block diagram of a system inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG.2, system 200 includes a processor 210, which in the implementationshown is a system on chip (SoC). However, understand that embodimentsare not limited in this regard and may be applicable to any type ofmulti-domain processor such as a multicore processor, which may furtherinclude additional compute engines and/or other agents.

In the high level view shown in FIG. 2, SoC is coupled to a powermanagement integrated circuit (PMIC) 250 via a voltage rail 255. PMIC250 may be a primary power controller for the system, which in someembodiments may be a portable computing device. As seen in FIG. 2, PMIC250 receives a battery voltage directly in an implementation in whichsystem 200 is a battery powered portable device such as a smartphone,tablet computer, laptop computer such as an Ultrabook™ computer, oranother portable computing device. Note in some implementations anadditional VR may be present between the battery and the PMIC. As anexample, if the battery output voltage is very high (e.g., for 2 seriesstacked battery) one stage of DC-DC conversion may be provided to enablethe PMIC internal blocks to operate on a lower voltage.

As seen, processor 210 includes multiple voltage rails 215 ₀-215 _(2n+1)each of which is coupled to receive a voltage from external voltage rail255 and provide it to a selected destination. More specifically, some ofthese voltage rails are coupled to corresponding on-chip voltageregulators which in the embodiment shown are implemented as digitallysynthesizable low drop out linear voltage regulators (LDOs) 220 ₀-220_(n). Others of these voltage rails are implemented as bypass paths thatdirectly provide the received off-chip voltage to a given selector 230₀-230 _(n). In turn, each of these selectors, which may be implementedas multiplexers, is coupled to a corresponding domain 240 ₀-240 _(n). Inthe example shown, processor 210 includes multiple core modules 240 ₀₋240 ₁, a graphics unit 240 ₂ and an image processing unit 240 _(n).While shown with these particular domains in the embodiment of FIG. 2,understand the scope of the present invention is not limited in thisregard and the number and types of independent domains within aprocessor can vary.

Thus each domain 240 is configured to receive an operating voltage via acorresponding selector 230. Both selectors 230 and LDOs 220 are in turncontrolled by an internal power controller, which in the embodiment ofFIG. 2 is a PCU 245. Based on determination of an appropriate operatingvoltage level for each of the domains, PCU 245 may appropriately controla corresponding LDO 220 and selector 230 to provide a determinedoperating voltage to the corresponding domain. In an embodiment, PCU 245communicates with PMIC 250 to set the external voltage rail value to themaximum of all the internal LDO domains connected to that rail. If allthe LDO domains request the same voltage, the LDOs are bypassed and thisoff-chip voltage, also referred to herein as a bypass voltage, is passedthrough to the on-die domains. Thus, if the determined operating voltageis the same as or substantially the same as the received off-chipvoltage, the corresponding LDO 220 may be turned off and thecorresponding bypass path 215 provides the operating voltage via a givenselector 230. In this way, the efficiency loss from LDO 220 can beavoided.

Still referring to FIG. 2, note further that a direct communicationchannel between PCU 245 and PMIC 250 may be present. In an embodimentthis channel may be implemented as an I²C bus or as an SVID bus toprovide requested operating voltage levels (e.g., in the form of voltageidentification values) to PMIC 250 to cause it to control the voltage oncorresponding voltage rail 255.

PCU 245 may include bypass logic 247 that may receive operating voltagelevel assignments determined in PCU 245 and determine whether a receivedregulated voltage via external PMIC 250 may be delivered via a givenbypass path directly to a given domain without the need for furtherregulation in a corresponding LDO 220. In this way, bypass logic maysend control signals to control corresponding LDOs 220 to be enabled ordisabled and to operate at a given operating voltage level to generatean appropriate regulated voltage and further to provide control signalsto selectors 230 to cause either the bypass voltage or a regulatedvoltage to be provided to the corresponding domain. Note that althoughshown at this high level in the embodiment of FIG. 2, embodiments arenot so limited. For example, instead of providing a dedicated LDO foreach of the domains, one on-die LDO may provide an operating voltage tomultiple domains. Furthermore, at least some domains may be controlledto be directly powered using an off-chip voltage such that the need foran on-die regulator for such domains can be avoided. And there can bevariations for a given system between use of on-die voltage regulatorsand off-chip voltage sources. Still further understand that in otherembodiments at least some of the logic for performing bypass operationsas described herein may be implemented in the PMIC such thatcommunication between PMIC 250 and PCU 245 occurs to determineappropriate operating voltages for the different domains and todetermine whether to provide the determined operating voltage to thedomain from the on-chip LDO or via an off-chip voltage source and toprovide control signals to enable such operation.

Referring now to FIG. 3, shown is a block diagram of an on-die voltageregulator in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Asshown in FIG. 3, voltage regulator 300 is a digitally synthesizableon-die linear voltage regulator (DSLDO). Although the embodiment shownis an LDO, understand that other types of switching voltage regulatorsmay equally be used. As seen, voltage regulator 300 receives an externalvoltage supply, which is coupled to a plurality of power gates 320 ₀-320_(n). In an embodiment these power gates can be implemented as metaloxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs), e.g., p-channelMOSFETs. DSLDO 300 regulates the operating voltage by modulating thenumber of active power gate transistors 320. Note also that DSLDO 300does not add any voltage drop over the power gates. Theseparallel-connected transistors may be controlled via a control logic 310such that based on a requested operating voltage, a selected number ofthese power gates 320 are enabled to provide an operating voltage to aload 380. As an example, the load may be a single domain of theprocessor. Control logic 310 is in turn configured to receive a digitalcontrol voltage output by a comparator 330. In an embodiment comparator330 may be implemented with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) and acomparator that receives a feedback value from the operating voltageoutput by regulator 300 and a reference signal in turn received via adigital-to-analog converter (DAC) 340. As seen, DAC 340 receives avoltage control signal such as a voltage ID (VID) signal received from,e.g., a PCU or other power controller of the processor. Thus regulator300 operates to output an operating voltage at a level requested by apower controller of the processor. Not shown for ease of illustration isa disable control signal (which may be the same signal as the controlsignal sent to the multiplexers in FIG. 2).

Referring now to FIG. 4, shown is a flow diagram of a method forcontrolling operating voltages of a processor in accordance with anembodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 4, method 400,which may be implemented within logic of a PCU such as a combinationvoltage control logic/bypass logic, may generally be used to determinean operating voltage for one or more domains of the processor andcontrol both on-chip and off-chip components to provide that operatingvoltage to the domain.

As seen in FIG. 4, method 400 begins by receiving platform configurationinformation (block 410). Although the scope of the present invention isnot limited in this regard in an embodiment such platform configurationinformation may include a mapping of the number of off-die voltage railsfor a given platform to the number of on-die voltage rails. In someimplementations a 1:1 mapping may exist, while in other implementationsa single off-chip voltage rail may couple to a plurality of on-dievoltage rails. Additional configuration information such as maximumoperating voltages, frequencies, and other processor constraints mayalso be provided. Control next passes to block 420 where a targetoperating point request may be received from multiple domains. Thesetarget operating point requests may be received, e.g., from a voltagecontrol logic of the PCU. In turn, the operating voltage requests mayoriginate from an OS, other system software or the domains themselvesand may correspond to a requested operating point including operatingvoltage and operating frequency. Understand that such requests may beaccepted, or voltage control logic may not allow a given operatingvoltage request to be fulfilled, depending on various constraints underwhich a processor is operating.

Next control passes to diamond 430 to determine whether all domainsrequest the same or substantially the same voltage. If this is the case,control passes to block 435 where various selectors may be controlled toprovide a bypass voltage to the domains. For example with reference backto FIG. 2, selectors 230 each may be controlled to provide a bypassvoltage received via a bypass path to the corresponding domain. As such,the various linear regulators that would otherwise be used to provide anoperating voltage to these domains may be disabled (block 440). As anexample, the PCU may send control signals to the linear regulators tocause them to be powered down, thus improving power efficiency.

Still referring to FIG. 4, if instead not all domains request the sameor substantially the same voltage, control passes to a loop beginning atblock 450. There the loop can be executed for each domain underanalysis. First at diamond 455 it can be determined whether a domainrequests a voltage that is the same or substantially the same as thebypass voltage. If not, control passes to block 460 where the linearregulator may be controlled to provide the requested voltage. As anexample, the PCU can send a voltage control signal such as a given VIDcode to the corresponding LDO to cause it to output the requestedoperating voltage to the corresponding domain. As seen, control thenpasses to block 470 where the selector associated with this domain maybe controlled to provide the voltage from this linear regulator to thedomain.

Otherwise if at diamond 455 it is determined that the requested voltageof a domain is the same as or substantially the same as the bypassvoltage, control next passes to block 480 where the selector can becontrolled to provide the bypass voltage itself to the domain. As such,the PCU may further control the LDO to be disabled (block 490), thusincreasing power efficiency and reducing power consumption. Althoughshown at this high level in the embodiment of FIG. 4, understand thescope of the present invention is not limited in this regard.

Embodiments thus provide a flexible method of providing multiple on-dievoltage domains and mapping them to one or more external power rails.Embodiments may also avoid the efficiency loss from an added voltageregulator. In addition, using an embodiment of the present invention asmall form factor device that cannot provide multiple power rails due toplatform size constraints can effectively perform power delivery using asingle external voltage rail.

Using an embodiment, a system designer can determine the number ofplatform rails to be used for the compute engines. As an example, theplatform can consolidate multiple DSLDO domains on one rail for cost,form factor reasons or so forth. A designer also may choose to havemultiple rails for the compute engines if the battery technology and/orthe platform size allow it, to extract greater performance.

Embodiments can be implemented in processors for various marketsincluding server processors, desktop processors, mobile processors andso forth. Referring now to FIG. 5, shown is a block diagram of aprocessor in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. Inthe embodiment of FIG. 5, processor 500 may be a system on a chip (SoC)including multiple domains, each of which may be coupled to receive anoperating voltage that can either be from a bypass path obtained from anexternal voltage regulator or from an on-chip LDO. Note also that thevoltage delivery may be dynamically controlled such that each domainreceives its operating voltage from either the LDO or from an off-chipsource, depending on a determined operating voltage for the domain. SuchSoC may be used in a low power system such as a smartphone, tabletcomputer, Ultrabook™ computer or other portable computing device.

In the high level view shown in FIG. 5, processor 500 includes aplurality of core units 510 ₀-510 _(n). Each core unit may include oneor more processor cores 512 ₀-512 _(n). In addition, each such core maybe coupled to a cache memory 514 which in an embodiment may be a sharedlevel (L2) cache memory. As further shown, each core unit 510 includesan interface 515 such as a bus interface unit to enable interconnectionto additional circuitry of the processor. Specifically as shown, eachcore unit 510 couples to a coherent fabric 530 that may act as a primarycache coherent on-die interconnect that in turn couples to a memorycontroller 535. In turn, memory controller 535 controls communicationswith a memory such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM) (not shownfor ease of illustration in FIG. 5).

In addition to core units, additional processing engines are presentwithin the processor, including at least one graphics unit 520 which mayinclude one or more graphics processing units (GPUs) to perform graphicsprocessing as well as to possibly execute general purpose operations onthe graphics processor (so-called GPGPU operation).

As seen, all of these various processing units, including core units 510and graphics unit 520 couple to coherent fabric 530. In addition, eachof the units may have its power consumption controlled via a powercontrol unit 540. PCU 540 includes a voltage control logic 545 todetermine appropriate operating voltage for each of the domains (and insome embodiments, sub-units of the domains), e.g., based on an availablepower budget and request for given performance and/or low power stateand further to perform dynamic operating voltage selection to be via abypass path or an on-chip linear regulator as described herein. In thisway, when a determined operating voltage for a domain is the same orsubstantially the same as a regulated voltage provided by a voltagerail, the corresponding linear regulator may be powered down, reducingpower consumption.

As further seen in FIG. 5, coherent fabric 530 couples to a non-coherentfabric 550 to which various peripheral devices may couple. In theembodiment shown in FIG. 5, these devices include a capture device 560,such as an on-chip camera, one or more peripheral devices 570, and oneor more interfaces 580 such as a PCIe™ interface to enable communicationwith one or more off chip devices, e.g., according to the PCIe™communication protocol. In addition, at least one image signal processor525 may be present. Signal processor 525 may be configured to processincoming image data received from one or more capture devices, eitherinternal to the SoC or off-chip. Although shown at this high level, inthe embodiment of FIG. 5, understand the scope of the present inventionis not limited in this regard.

Referring now to FIG. 6, shown is a block diagram of a processor inaccordance with another embodiment of the present invention. As shown inFIG. 6, processor 600 may be a multicore processor including a pluralityof cores 610 a-610 n. In one embodiment, each such core may be of asingle domain or an independent power domain and can be configured toenter and exit active states and/or turbo modes based on workload and tooperate at an operating voltage received either from an on-chip linearregulator or an off-chip source. The various cores may be coupled via aninterconnect 615 to a system agent or uncore 620 that includes variouscomponents. As seen, the uncore 620 may include a shared cache 630 whichmay be a last level cache. In addition, the uncore may include anintegrated memory controller 640, various interfaces 650 and a powercontrol unit 655.

In various embodiments, power control unit 655 may include a voltagecontrol logic 659 in accordance with an embodiment of the presentinvention. As described above, this logic is configured to determine anappropriate operating voltage for each domain of the processor and toindividually enable one or more on-chip linear regulators to providethat operating voltage or to enable a pass through voltage received froman off-chip source to be provided to the given domain (and disable thecorresponding on-chip regulator).

With further reference to FIG. 6, processor 600 may communicate with asystem memory 660, e.g., via a memory bus. In addition, by interfaces650, connection can be made to various off-chip components such asperipheral devices, mass storage and so forth. While shown with thisparticular implementation in the embodiment of FIG. 6, the scope of thepresent invention is not limited in this regard.

Referring now to FIG. 7, shown is a block diagram of a multi-domainprocessor in accordance with another embodiment of the presentinvention. As shown in the embodiment of FIG. 7, processor 700 includesmultiple domains. Specifically, a core domain 710 can include aplurality of cores 710 ₀-710 _(n), a graphics domain 720 can include oneor more graphics engines, and an image signal processor domain 725 mayinclude at least one image signal processor. In addition, a system agentdomain 750 may further be present. Each domain may be dynamicallycontrolled to be powered by an independent rail via a bypass path or byan independent on-chip linear regulator, in an embodiment. In anotherembodiment, multiple domains such as the graphics and image processingdomains may be powered by a common rail and/or linear regulator whilethe core domain is powered by an independent rail and/or linearregulator. In some embodiments, system agent domain 750 may execute atan independent frequency and may remain powered on at all times tohandle power control events and power management such that domains 710,720, and 725 can be controlled to dynamically enter into and exit highpower and low power states. Each of domains 710, 720 and 725 may operateat different voltage and/or power. Note that while only shown with fourdomains, understand the scope of the present invention is not limited inthis regard and additional domains can be present in other embodiments.For example, multiple core domains may be present each including atleast one core.

In general, each core 710 may further include low level caches inaddition to various execution units and additional processing elements.In turn, the various cores may be coupled to each other and to a sharedcache memory formed of a plurality of units of a last level cache (LLC)740 ₀-740 _(n). In various embodiments, LLC 740 may be shared amongstthe cores and the graphics engine, as well as various media processingcircuitry. As seen, a ring interconnect 730 thus couples the corestogether, and provides interconnection between the cores, graphicsdomain 720, signal processor domain 725 and system agent circuitry 750.In one embodiment, interconnect 730 can be part of the core domain.However in other embodiments the ring interconnect can be of its owndomain.

As further seen, system agent domain 750 may include display controller752 which may provide control of and an interface to an associateddisplay. As further seen, system agent domain 750 may include a powercontrol unit 755 which can include a voltage control logic 759 inaccordance with an embodiment of the present invention to enabledelivery of an operating voltage dynamically from either an on-chipregulator or an off-chip source as described herein. In variousembodiments, this logic may be configured as in FIG. 2 and may executethe algorithm described above in FIG. 4.

As further seen in FIG. 7, processor 700 can further include anintegrated memory controller (IMC) 770 that can provide for an interfaceto a system memory, such as a dynamic random access memory (DRAM).Multiple interfaces 780 ₀-780 _(n) may be present to enableinterconnection between the processor and other circuitry. For example,in one embodiment at least one direct media interface (DMI) interfacemay be provided as well as one or more Peripheral Component InterconnectExpress (PCI Express™ (PCIe™)) interfaces. Still further, to provide forcommunications between other agents such as additional processors orother circuitry, one or more interfaces in accordance with an Intel®Quick Path Interconnect (QPI) protocol may also be provided. Althoughshown at this high level in the embodiment of FIG. 7, understand thescope of the present invention is not limited in this regard.

Embodiments may be implemented in many different system types. Referringnow to FIG. 8, shown is a block diagram of a system in accordance withan embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 8,multiprocessor system 800 is a point-to-point interconnect system, andincludes a first processor 870 and a second processor 880 coupled via apoint-to-point interconnect 850. As shown in FIG. 8, each of processors870 and 880 may be multicore processors, including first and secondprocessor cores (i.e., processor cores 874 a and 874 b and processorcores 884 a and 884 b), although potentially many more cores may bepresent in the processors. Each of the processors can include a PCU orother logic to perform dynamic operating voltage control to be eitherfrom an on-chip linear regulator or an off-chip regulated voltagesource, as described herein.

Still referring to FIG. 8, first processor 870 further includes a memorycontroller hub (MCH) 872 and point-to-point (P-P) interfaces 876 and878. Similarly, second processor 880 includes a MCH 882 and P-Pinterfaces 886 and 888. As shown in FIG. 6, MCH's 872 and 882 couple theprocessors to respective memories, namely a memory 832 and a memory 834,which may be portions of system memory (e.g., DRAM) locally attached tothe respective processors. First processor 870 and second processor 880may be coupled to a chipset 890 via P-P interconnects 862 and 864,respectively. As shown in FIG. 8, chipset 890 includes P-P interfaces894 and 898.

Furthermore, chipset 890 includes an interface 892 to couple chipset 890with a high performance graphics engine 838, by a P-P interconnect 839.In turn, chipset 890 may be coupled to a first bus 816 via an interface896. As shown in FIG. 8, various input/output (I/O) devices 814 may becoupled to first bus 816, along with a bus bridge 818 which couplesfirst bus 816 to a second bus 820. Various devices may be coupled tosecond bus 820 including, for example, a keyboard/mouse 822,communication devices 826 and a data storage unit 828 such as a diskdrive or other mass storage device which may include code 830, in oneembodiment. Further, an audio I/O 824 may be coupled to second bus 820.Embodiments can be incorporated into other types of systems includingmobile devices such as a smart cellular telephone, tablet computer,netbook, Ultrabook™, or so forth.

The following examples pertain to further embodiments.

In an example, a processor comprises a plurality of domains each tooperate at an independently controllable voltage and frequency, aplurality of linear regulators each to receive a first voltage from anoff-chip source and controllable to provide a regulated voltage to atleast one of the plurality of domains, and a plurality of selectors eachcoupled to one of the plurality of domains, each of the plurality ofselectors to provide a regulated voltage from one of the plurality oflinear regulators or a bypass voltage to a corresponding one of theplurality of domains.

In another example, the processor further comprises a power control unit(PCU) to control each of the plurality of selectors based on a targetoperating point for the corresponding domain.

In another example, the PCU is to disable a first linear regulator whena first selector coupled to the first linear regulator is to provide thebypass voltage to a first domain coupled to the first selector.

In another example, the plurality of linear regulators are to receivethe first voltage from a single voltage rail coupled to the processor.

In an example, the bypass voltage corresponds to the first voltage.

In an example, each of the plurality of linear regulators comprises acomparator to generate a comparison signal based on comparison of areference voltage to the regulated voltage, a control logic to receivethe comparison signal and to generate at least one control signal basedat least in part thereon, and a plurality of power gates to receive thefirst voltage and to provide the regulated voltage responsive to the atleast one control signal.

In another example, the PCU is to provide a digital voltage value to thelinear regulator and the linear regulator is to generate the referencevoltage responsive thereto.

In another example, when each of the plurality of domains is to operateat a substantially common voltage, the plurality of linear regulatorsare to be disabled.

In another example, the substantially common voltage is substantiallyequal to the first voltage.

In another example, a first one of the plurality of linear regulators isto be disabled when a corresponding first one of the plurality ofdomains is to operate at a voltage at least substantially equal to thefirst voltage.

In another example, the PCU is to communicate with a power managementcontroller coupled to the processor, where the power managementcontroller is to provide the first voltage to the processor via at leastone external voltage rail. The PCU may provide a voltage identificationvalue to the power management controller, and the power managementcontroller is to provide the first voltage based at least in part on thevoltage identification value. The power management controller may becoupled to the processor via a single external voltage rail and theprocessor comprises a plurality of internal voltage rails including afirst set of voltage rails each coupled to an input of one of theplurality of linear regulators and a second set of voltage rails eachcoupled to one of the plurality of selectors.

Note that the above processor can be implemented using various means.

In an example, the processor comprises a system on a chip (SoC)incorporated in a user equipment touch-enabled device.

In another example, a system comprises a display and a memory, andincludes the processor of one or more of the above examples.

In an example, a method comprises receiving, in a power controller of amulticore processor, target operating point requests from a plurality ofdomains of the multicore processor, responsive to the plurality ofdomains requesting the same or substantially the same operating voltage,providing a bypass voltage received via an external voltage rail to theplurality of domains, and disabling a plurality of linear regulators ofthe multicore processor.

In another example, the method further comprises receiving platformconfiguration information including information regarding one or moreexternal voltage rails coupled to the multicore processor in the powercontroller and mapping the one or more external voltage rails to aplurality of on-chip voltage rails.

In another example, the method further comprises responsive to theplurality of domains not requesting the same or substantially the sameoperating voltage, controlling a first selector coupled to receive thebypass voltage and a regulated voltage provided by a first one of theplurality of linear regulators to provide the regulated voltage to afirst domain of the plurality of domains.

In another example, the method further comprises controlling the firstselector to provide the bypass voltage to the first domain and disablingthe first linear regulator responsive to the first domain requesting anoperating voltage the same or substantially the same as the bypassvoltage.

In another example, the method further comprises responsive to thetarget operating point requests, determining a maximum operating voltagerequested by the plurality of domains and communicating the maximumoperating voltage to a platform power controller to cause a voltage railcoupled the platform power controller to provide the bypass voltage atthe maximum operating voltage.

In another example, a machine-readable medium having stored thereoninstructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machine toperform a method according to any of the above examples.

In an example, an apparatus comprises means to perform a methodaccording to any of the above examples.

In an example, a system comprises a multicore processor including aplurality of domains each to operate at an independently controllablevoltage and frequency, a plurality of linear regulators each to receivea first voltage and output a regulated voltage, a plurality ofmultiplexers each coupled to one of the plurality of domains, each ofthe plurality of multiplexers to provide a regulated voltage from one ofthe plurality of linear regulators or an external voltage to thecorresponding one of the plurality of domains, and a power control unit(PCU) to control each of the plurality of multiplexers based at least inpart on a target operating point for the corresponding domain, and apower management controller coupled to the multicore processor, wherethe power management controller is to provide the external voltage tothe multicore processor via at least one external voltage rail.

In another example, the PCU is coupled to the power managementcontroller to provide a voltage identification value to the powermanagement controller, where the power management controller is toprovide the external voltage based at least in part on the voltageidentification value.

In another example, the PCU is to provide the voltage identificationvalue to a first linear regulator of the plurality of linear regulatorsthat comprises a comparator to generate a comparison signal based oncomparison of a reference voltage to the regulated voltage, a controllogic to receive the comparison signal and to generate at least onecontrol signal based at least in part thereon, and a plurality of powergates to receive the external voltage and to provide the regulatedvoltage responsive to the at least one control signal.

In another example, the PCU is to disable the first linear regulatorwhen a first domain coupled to the first linear regulator is to receivethe external voltage.

In another example, the PCU is to disable the first linear regulatorwhen the first domain is to operate at a voltage at least substantiallyequal to the external voltage.

In another example, the power management controller is coupled to themulticore processor via a single external voltage rail and the multicoreprocessor comprises a plurality of internal voltage rails including afirst set of voltage rails each coupled to an input of one of theplurality of linear regulators and a second set of voltage rails eachcoupled to one of the plurality of multiplexers.

In another example, the PCU is to enable a first linear regulator and afirst multiplexer to provide a first regulated voltage to a first domainand to disable a second linear regulator and to enable a secondmultiplexer to provide the external voltage to a second domain.

In another example, the PCU is, responsive to target operating pointrequests for the plurality of domains, to determine a maximum operatingvoltage requested by the plurality of domains and communicate themaximum operating voltage to the power management controller to causethe external voltage to be equal to the maximum operating voltage.

In another example, the system further comprises a voltage regulatorcoupled to the power management controller, where the power managementcontroller is to control the voltage regulator to generate the externalvoltage at a regulated voltage level.

Understand that various combinations of the above examples are possible.

Embodiments may be used in many different types of systems. For example,in one embodiment a communication device can be arranged to perform thevarious methods and techniques described herein. Of course, the scope ofthe present invention is not limited to a communication device, andinstead other embodiments can be directed to other types of apparatusfor processing instructions, or one or more machine readable mediaincluding instructions that in response to being executed on a computingdevice, cause the device to carry out one or more of the methods andtechniques described herein.

Embodiments may be implemented in code and may be stored on anon-transitory storage medium having stored thereon instructions whichcan be used to program a system to perform the instructions. The storagemedium may include, but is not limited to, any type of disk includingfloppy disks, optical disks, solid state drives (SSDs), compact diskread-only memories (CD-ROMs), compact disk rewritables (CD-RWs), andmagneto-optical disks, semiconductor devices such as read-only memories(ROMs), random access memories (RAMs) such as dynamic random accessmemories (DRAMs), static random access memories (SRAMs), erasableprogrammable read-only memories (EPROMs), flash memories, electricallyerasable programmable read-only memories (EEPROMs), magnetic or opticalcards, or any other type of media suitable for storing electronicinstructions.

While the present invention has been described with respect to a limitednumber of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerousmodifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appendedclaims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within thetrue spirit and scope of this present invention.

What is claimed is:
 1. A processor comprising: a plurality of processorcores to operate at an independently controllable voltage and frequency;a plurality of integrated voltage regulators to receive a first voltagefrom an external voltage regulator and controllable to provide aregulated voltage to at least one of the plurality of processor cores; acontrol circuit coupled to the plurality of integrated voltageregulators, wherein in a first mode the control circuit is to cause theregulated voltage from at least one of the plurality of integratedvoltage regulators to be provided to at least some of the plurality ofprocessor cores, and in a second mode to cause a bypass voltage from theexternal voltage regulator to be provided to the at least some of theplurality of processor cores; and a power control unit (PCU) todetermine an operating voltage for the plurality of processor cores, thePCU including a bypass logic, in the second mode, to cause the bypassvoltage to be provided to the at least some of the plurality ofprocessor cores and cause the plurality of integrated voltage regulatorsto be disabled.
 2. The processor of claim 1, wherein, in the first mode,the PCU is to cause the plurality of integrated voltage regulators toprovide the regulated voltage independently to the at least some of theplurality of processor cores.
 3. The processor of claim 1, wherein, inthe first mode, the PCU is to cause at least one of the plurality ofprocessor cores to be disabled.
 4. The processor of claim 1, wherein theplurality of integrated voltage regulators are to receive the firstvoltage from a single voltage rail coupled to the processor.
 5. Theprocessor of claim 4, wherein the bypass voltage corresponds to thefirst voltage.
 6. The processor of claim 1, wherein the processorfurther comprises an integrated memory controller.
 7. The processor ofclaim 1, wherein the processor further comprises a graphics processor.8. The processor of claim 7, wherein the plurality of processor cores,the graphics processor and the plurality of integrated voltageregulators are formed on a single semiconductor die.
 9. The processor ofclaim 8, further comprising a fabric formed on the single semiconductordie to couple at least some of the plurality of processor cores.
 10. Theprocessor of claim 1, wherein the plurality of integrated voltageregulators comprise linear regulators.
 11. The processor of claim 1,wherein the plurality of integrated voltage regulators comprise lowdropout regulators.
 12. The processor of claim 11, wherein the lowdropout regulators comprise one or more power gates.
 13. The processorof claim 1, wherein the PCU, based at least in part on a request from anoperating system for an opportunistic performance state, thermalinformation and power consumption information, is to enable at least oneof the plurality of processor cores to operate at a turbo modefrequency.
 14. A non-transitory machine-readable medium having storedthereon instructions, which if performed by a machine cause the machineto perform a method comprising: receiving, in a power controller of amulticore processor, target operating point requests for a plurality ofprocessor cores of the multicore processor; in a second mode,controlling a control circuit of the multicore processor to provide abypass voltage received via an external voltage rail to the plurality ofprocessor cores to cause the plurality of processor cores to operate atthe same or substantially the same operating voltage; in the secondmode, disabling a plurality of integrated voltage regulators of themulticore processor; and in a first mode, controlling the controlcircuit to cause a first integrated voltage regulator to provide aregulated voltage to a first core of the plurality of processor cores.15. The non-transitory machine readable medium of claim 14, wherein themethod further comprises receiving a request from an operating systemfor an opportunistic performance state, and based at least in partthereon, enabling at least one of the plurality of processor cores tooperate at a turbo mode frequency.
 16. The non-transitory machinereadable medium of claim 14, wherein the method further comprisesresponsive to the target operating point requests, determining a maximumoperating voltage requested by the plurality of processor cores andcommunicating the maximum operating voltage to a platform powercontroller to cause a voltage regulator coupled the platform powercontroller to provide the bypass voltage at the maximum operatingvoltage.
 17. A system comprising: a multicore processor having asemiconductor die including: a plurality of cores to operate at anindependently controllable voltage and frequency; a plurality ofinternal voltage regulators to receive a first voltage from an externalvoltage regulator and controllable to provide a regulated voltage to atleast one of the plurality of cores; a circuit coupled to the pluralityof internal voltage regulators, wherein in a first mode the circuit isto cause the regulated voltage from at least one of the plurality ofinternal voltage regulators to be provided to at least some of theplurality of cores, and in a second mode to cause a bypass voltage fromthe external voltage regulator to be provided to the at least some ofthe plurality of cores; and a power controller to determine an operatingvoltage for the plurality of cores, wherein in the second mode, thepower controller is to cause the bypass voltage to be provided to the atleast some of the plurality of cores and cause the plurality of internalvoltage regulators to be disabled; and the external voltage regulatorcoupled to the multicore processor, the external voltage regulator toprovide the external voltage to the multicore processor via at least oneexternal voltage rail.
 18. The system of claim 17, wherein the powercontroller is to provide a voltage identification value to a powermanagement controller, wherein the power management controller is tocontrol the external voltage regulator to provide the external voltagebased at least in part on the voltage identification value.
 19. Thesystem of claim 17, wherein the power controller is to disable a firstinternal voltage regulator when a first core coupled to the firstinternal voltage regulator is to receive the external voltage.
 20. Thesystem of claim 19, wherein the power controller is to disable the firstinternal voltage regulator when the first core is to operate at avoltage at least substantially equal to the external voltage.